The Semantic Web and The Web Of Commerce

The Semantic web has the potential be completely disruptive or completely

opportune to online commerce.

Barbara StarrEmail: bstarr@Ontologica.us

Twitter: @BarbaraStarr

Disruptive InnovationA disruptive innovation is an innovation that disrupts an existing market. The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by lowering price or designing for a different set of consumers.In contrast to "disruptive" innovation, a "sustaining" innovation does not have an effect on existing markets. Sustaining innovations may be either "discontinuous"[1] (i.e. "transformational") or "continuous" (i.e. "evolutionary"). Transformational innovations are not always disruptive. Although the automobile was a transformational innovation, it was not a disruptive innovation, because early automobiles were expensive luxury items that did not disrupt the market for horse-drawn vehicles. The market for transportation essentially remained intact until the debut of the lower priced Ford Model T in 1908 by making higher speed, motorized transportation available to the masses.[2]

Disruptive innovation

Christensen defines a disruptive innovation as a product or service designed for a new set of customers.

Christensen argues that disruptive innovations can hurt successful, well managed companies that are responsive to their customers and have excellent research and development. These companies tend to ignore the markets most susceptible to disruptive innovations, because the markets have very tight profit margins and are too small to represent significant growth.[5]

The Theory

What is the Semantic Web

Semantic web synonymous with Web 3.0 ?

Putting structured information into the web in some machine readable format

Semantic meaning

Not about the relationships between links, but about relationship between things, and the properties of those things

A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilitiesBy Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila   

What is the Semantic Web (cont)

“The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF)”

World Wide Web Consortium

http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

RDF - Triples

• RDF (Resource Description Framework) A resource is anything you want to

describe. An RDF triple contains a subject, predicate, and object.

e.g

Michael Davidknows

Michael boyis-a

subjectpredicate

object

subjectpredicate

object

RDF - Triples

translates into(michael knows David)(michael is-a boy)and we can infer with the right ontology & inferencing mechanism

(michael is-a person)

Michael Davidknows

Michael boyis-a

predicate

object

subjectpredicate

object

subject

(michael knows David)(michael is-a boy)(michael is-a person)

RDF - Triples

Triple store OrWeb 3.0 database

Linked Data Cloud

Wikipedia Definition of anOntology

In computer science and information science, an ontology is a formal representation of the knowledge by a set of

concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about the properties of

that domain, and may be used to describe the domain.

In theory, an ontology is a "formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualization".[1] An ontology provides a

shared vocabulary, which can be used to model a domain — that is, the type of objects and/or concepts that exist,

and their properties and relations.[2]

Ontologies are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic Web, systems engineering, software engineering,

biomedical informatics, library science, enterprise bookmarking, and information architecture as a form of knowledge

representation about the world or some part of it. The creation of domain ontologies is also fundamental to the

definition and use of an enterprise architecture framework.

Not restricted to a hierarchical structure as with a taxonomy

Ontologies

• OWL – Web Ontology Language (OWL 2.0 released)

• RDFS – RDF Schema

• Some existing standards ontologies: – FOAF - Friend of a Friend - for social networks

– SIOC - Semantically Interlinked Online Communities

– Goodrelations for e-commerce

– Geodata

– Upper Level Ontology

– FOAF - Friend of a Friend - for social networks

– SIOC - Semantically Interlinked Online Communities

– Google Ontology

– …..

13

RDFa

• RDFa is simply RDF in attributes. It adds a set of attribute level extensions to HTML, enabling rich metadata to be embedded within web pages.

• It not only enables triples to be embedded in web pages but also ultimately enables the extraction of triples

In short, this is the means by which we add structured markup to web pages

SPARQL

• SPARQL is an RDF Query Language. • It is a recursive acronym and stands for SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language.

• Information from linked Datasets can be accessed via SPARQL queries.

• Most linked data sources provide SPARQL ENDPOINTS to enable access.

• A SPARQL endpoint - provides access to its data via supported SPARQL protocol

To cut a loooong story short:

We go from: a web of documents or hyperlinks,to: a web of data or semantic linkswith: linked data and linked datasets.We use RDF to represent the data on the weband we use SPARQL to query the dataAnd RDFa is simply RDF in attributes.

Core Concepts:

• Not that we have forgotten about:

– RDFS (RDF Schema)

– OWL (Web Ontology Language)

• & then in summary

– RDF (central to all)

– Linked Data

– SPARQL

• RDFa (simply stated as it is html markup)

So at this point either your head is spinning

or

You are bored to death because you already know about the semantic web

zzzzzzzzzzz

SO …

- How is this being used?- What is the extent of adoption- Who is using it?- How can it be leveraged?

LOD Cloud Evolution

The rate of growth has been remarkable

Source maintained by: Richard Cygniak and Anja Jentsch. http://lod-cloud.net

Oct 2007

Nov 2007 (1)

Nov 2007 (2)

Feb 2008

Mar 2008

Sept 2008

Mar 2009 (1)

Mar 2009 (2)

March 5 - 2009

March 27 - 2009

July 14 - 2009

Sept 22 - 2010

LOD cloud – Sept 22 2010

latest LOD cloud

Adopters?• UK Government• US Government• BBC (FIFA world cup site dynamically generated using linked data)• Thomson Reuters• Freebase• NY Times• Best Buy• Tesco• Google (More to follow http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#)• Yahoo• Facebook• Oracle• Tons more – Just look at the diversity in the LOD data cloud• …….

Semantic Web to Date

Semantic Search

What is Semantic Search

• Semantic Search is basically the notion of improving search by using metadata or searching on that metadata.

• There are several ways that the Search engines on the web may use this to enhance search results.

– FIND, rather than SEARCH. • Searching directly on the metadata directly can yield specific

answers or results as demonstrated in the following example:

Query

“Barack Obama Birthday”

Results on

Definitive Answer on Top

Bing

Definitive Answer

Note: Freebase part of Metaweb acquisition by Google

Definitive answer & enhanced display

Bingleveraged this for quite some time

What is Semantic Search (cont)

• Semantic Search is basically the notion of improving search by using metadata or searching on that metadata.

• There are several ways that the Search engines on the web may use this to enhance search results.

– FIND, rather than SEARCH. • Searching directly on the metadata directly can yield specific

answers or results as demonstrated in the following example:

• Ran the query “Barack Obama Birthday” on both google, and bing. Obtained the following:

– Answer engines rather than Search Engines?• At this point really, a definitive answer followed with the standard

search result set for that query

What is Semantic Search (Cont)

• Semantic Search is basically the notion of improving search by using metadata or searching on that metadata.

• There are several ways that the Search engines on the web may use this to enhance search results.

– FIND, rather than SEARCH.

– Another aspect of using metadata such as embedding metadata or semantic markup in web pages could be demonstrated by enhanced displays in search results (e.g. rich snippets in google). Both Google and Yahoo support enhanced displays for RDFa markup.

Rich Snippets

• Google now supports Rich snippets for– People– Events– Businesses and organizations– Reviews– Recipes– Products– Breadcrumbs– Local Search– Video– images

http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#

Rich Snippets

• Google now supports Rich snippets for– People– Events– Businesses and organizations– Reviews– Recipes– Products– Breadcrumbs– Local Search

http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#

RDFa for videos

October 26, 2009

EventsMar 12, 2010

50

Recipes

April 13, 2010

Facebook Opengraph protocol based on RFDa April 20, 2010

Enables “semantic Profiling” of users

April 26, 2010

July 16, 2010

Sept 2, 2010

Sept 22, 2010

The Demise of Searchmonkey

57

Products now “findable” (more to follow)

Nov 2, 2010

Google acquires Metaweb (freebase)

Google RefineNov, 2010

Yahoo fully supported RDFa for enhanced displays

Social Networks

• While search engines can benefit from access to social networks, social networks can benefit from semantic metadata in web pages

–Example is Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol (also supports RDFa) which allows users to share & like objects (such as products) as opposed to web pages. Enables “Semantic Profiling” of the users by facebook.

Generic Web Benefits / Uses

• Yahoo stated 15% increase in CTR as a result of enhanced displays, rich snippets in Google

• Definitive answers enabled by understanding and leveraging how search engines are searching directly on metadata

• Semantic Profiling and adoption by social networks

• Embedding semantic markup in web pages and product pages ultimately makes information “findable” by search engines, enabling them to provide improvements such as definitive answers, enhanced displays, etc

Google supports 3 alternatives for microformats for products

• Google format• Hproduct• Goodrelations

• Which do we use & why?

What can we do with RDFa?

• Produce RDFa• Consume RDFa• Build smart applications with consumed RDFa

as we now have a triple store and all the reasoning and decision making tools such as those provided by allegrograph

Google Ontology

Google Ontology

Facebook Ontology

http://www.overstock.com/Clothing-Shoes/Grane-Womens-Double-breasted-Military-Coat/5237784/product.html

Consumed RDFa

Jans will demonstrate how to navigate this in allegrograph to ensure relationships set correctly re: nested divs, etc

Services or products

Consuming multiple microformats

LOD meets LOC

LOD meets LOC

LOD meets LOC

1. Optimized RDFa in all pages that - serves Google Rich Snippets - serves Yahoo SearchMonkey - is GoodRelations valid - is accessible to all client-side browser

extensions (there will be a lot of such services soon, believe me)

- is perfect for any semantics-aware search engines so that overstock.com offers are visible

2. Novel recommender systems based on GoodRelations I have quite a lot of novel approaches for GoodRelations-based

recommender systems (in-site), which would be very useful for consumer electronics and fashion, in particular.

3. Precision E-Commerce Content Syndication Soon, owners of small sites will be able to syndicate very specific e-

commerce content based on GoodRelations (same as currently supported by eBay and Amazon, but then across the whole WWW).

We have a prototype for this already running, it could be a great new

direction for overstock. (besides the positive buzz about it).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/technology/personaltech/25smart.html?src=busln

Myriad of competitive shopping apps already out there, but always room for one more?

How is this potentially disruptiveThe hypothesis: Possible New Consumer market. Good for mama & papaShops and small business. Also for Overstock. Data exposed that may be lost ifonly consumed by larger users e.g. google

Mama & PapaOnline Store

Web of data – LOC cloud Semantic GR

Based apps -

SemanticGR basedShopping apps

RDFa

Random Shopper

Shoppers

SemanticGR basedShopping apps

In the meantimeNo longer Beta

Help sell on google

Where do we go from here?

• Other means of supplying gr markuphttp://www.jarltech.de is exposing its full catalog

with ca. 4,000 auto-ID products in RDF/XML (updated several times a week!) (not as silly as I first thought)

http://www.jarltech.de/goodrelations.rdf

Other Verticals within retail

• New Vertical Markets– Automative (Large automotive manufacturer recently adopted GR :announcement coming soon)

– Financial– Fashion– Real Estate– Tickets– Electronics

Break

Barbara StarrEmail: bstarr@Ontologica.us

Twitter: @BarbaraStarr

Fodder for further thoughtBBYOPEN API is primarily focused on delivering fairly unstructured XMLand JSON (not semantic) for developer consumption. My focus has beentaking those APIs and putting additional structure around them withvocabularies like GoodRelations. While my primary focus has been RDFa,I am pushing the project owners to also develop an RDF model andpublic facing SPARQL endpoint. :-)

On Nov 23, 4:45 pm, Marco Neumann <marco.neum...@gmail.com> wrote:Last week at the Lotico Semantic Web event in New York Jay Myers gaveus an interesting glimpse into the world of enterprise softwaredevelopers and their application of Semantic Web technologies. And isindeed a very promising effort for a global retailer like Best Buy Ibelieve. You can find Jay's slides here:

http://www.lotico.com/index.php/How_Best_Buy_is_using_the_Semantic_We...

I would like to kick off the discussion with a question:

Jay does the BBYOPEN API also support RDF or do you primarily focus on RDFa?

Marco

--Marco NeumannKONA

Brand

Goodrelations version:<span rel="gr:hasManufacturer"> <span about="#canon” typeof="gr:BusinessEntity"><span property="gr:legalName">Canon Inc.</span></span>

Google Version<span itemprop="brand"> <h1 class="productName">SanDisk 16GB Secure Digital SD/ SDHC Memory

Card</h1></span>

• According to a recent report published by Forrester Research and Akamai, two seconds is the new threshold in terms of an average online shopper’s expectation for a web page to load. Other research conducted by Google and Microsoft revealed that a delay of only a half second can cause increased shopping cart abandonment rates, higher bounce rates, fewer pages per visit, and reduced revenue per site visitor.

• With consumers expected to spend $32.4 billion online this season, retailers are under even more pressure to ensure that their sites perform over the next few months.

• While more retailers were offering online deals this year on Black Friday, it should be interesting to see how retail sites perform on Cyber Monday, which is one of the most trafficked online spending days of the year.

• You can access WatchMouse’s full list here.